To Moments We Have Left To Live

 Last night the sky went from one wow stage to the next...I was out from 7:30 to 8:30 watching the splendor of God's 'outer fringes' in full glory!

 In Jonna's tribute to Kara Tippetts she reminded us how Kara said "...what I have is Jesus. He has given me breath, and with it I pray I would live well and fade well. By degrees of doing both, living and dying, as I have moments left to live." 

Should that not be each of our desire, as we have moments left to live?

We do not know and none can tell

When we will bid Time’s chime farewell

Then we should strive our best to give

As we have moments left to live

How stilly ebbs the fading day

Over the west and far away

Matrix of mercy’s take-and-give

Of old to new moments to live

Pray we do not ill-treat the air

Drenched with our little Here to There

For none can tell how full the sieve

Of moments we have left to live

There is no rehearsal for this;

Life’s last and awesome farewell kiss

Then may we our full fervor give

To moments we have left to live

© Janet Martin

Where The World is Full of Spring...

The air is full of zephyr

And the lark with caroling

The heart is full of laughter

Where the world is full of spring

Time’s sterner stance has softened

Like we often wished it would

As earth becomes a garden

Filled with smiles of ‘it is good’

The limb is lush with ruby

And the ruby flushed with bloom

Our labor more than duty

In time's newborn living-room

 The breeze is full of banter

And our dreams are full of gold

Where heaven’s blue decanter

Pours warm sunbeams to our hold

That place we cannot enter

Save in thought, remembering

Has gained another winter

Where the world is full of spring

© Janet Martin

Embrace It...to all of us

Congratulations to Jordan Spieth, enjoying some gold green-jacket moments:)

Embrace it; 

the offspring of trying

and never giving up

Savor full the flavor of

The victor's cup

Embrace it;

life's joy and sorrow

finely interlace

and who knows what tomorrow holds

to take its place

So, embrace it;

this very moment

flowing Whence to Thence

is shaping and bestowing

recompense

Janet~

Sometimes In The Looking Up

PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, write a confession poem. 

Sometimes I forget

and the waking morning wears

the weight of worry and regret

instead of prayer

Sometimes I forget

how to love and trust

staggering beneath the yoke

of must-drenched dust

Sometimes I forget

while You fill up the sky

with the hem of heaven's glory 

and glimpsed Majesty

 

But then, in the looking up

My heart storm is subdued

As I confess my wanting-ness

Hope is renewed

 Janet Martin~

 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Ps. 39:7

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Ps.130:5

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Ps.62:5

April Is...

PAD Challenge day 11: For today’s prompt, write a seasonal poem.

April is a stage with curtain drawn

While our expectation

Spawns visions of velvet lawn

And picnic celebration

April is a maiden with much to do

While she shakes her apron

Ten-thousand-thousand miracles

Startle earth from heaven

The waiting before the have-and-hold

Keens our appreciation

And suddenly each moment is

A most sacred creation

For April is a dowdy harbinger

Yet, a favorite of ours

Because she scrubs earth’s floors before

May fills the world with flowers

© Janet Martin

How I Love You

 'I've had it!' I announced after another frantic' hurry-up, it's bus-time!!' morning...that was a few days ago and I told them there will be no more mother-shouts. If they miss the bus they are grounded and fined...(yes, they're old enough to pay fines;) and yes, I love them but no longer as an alarm-clock!

This week (Master's Week), golfer Gary Player  inspired me to re-look at the work ethic I am teaching my family. He asked a class of students how many want to play pro-golf and many hands shot up, then he asked how many are up at 6:00 a.m. and no hands went up. 'you will not be pro-golfers',  he said.

PAD challenge day 10: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “How (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem...

Sometimes I wonder if you know

How much I really love you

In smiles of washed dishes, mopped floors, clean clothes

And a rain-proof, mortgaged roof above you

Sometimes I wonder in the holding, scolding

Folding away of daylight beneath dusk

If you are aware that the air you breathe

Is anointed with prayer-whispers of love

Sometimes I wonder if my mother wondered

In the hustle-bustle, hurry-way of days

If we recognized how what she is doing

Is because she loved us in these time-tried ways

Sometimes I wonder at the quickness of hours

How, how we fill them soon slips to the past

And how, how I love you will fill thought-pictures

Splayed in echoes of childhood-shadows cast

Janet~aka Mom

Work of Art

When my cousin Robb was 17 his love for art and metal inspired him to 'set up shop' in the corner of a shed on my Uncle Oscar's farm. Now twenty-some years later he works at/owns Thak Ironworks, a business that requires extremely hard work, yet provides an outlet for his talent/passion! His work has been sold world-wide...be it high-end armor, railings, gates, range-hoods and other numerous works of art. Below are a few shots of some of his work. Visit his site for more info and pictures.

Time is a sequence of moments 

From life's kind Giver they pour

and what we do with them will be 

what we are remembered for...

Workmanship is something

That shapes our legacy

We would do well to remember this

In whatever that work may be

So forge from the fire of moments

Love's best with hand and heart

For then the end result will be

A beautiful work of art

Janet~ 

Robb, thank-you again for the impromtu interview.

If you are passing through Floradale, Ontario, check it out!

PAD Challenge day 9; write a work poem

Thursday Thoughts on Work

PAD Challenge Day 9: write a work poem.

You can tell a lot ‘bout folk

Not by what but how they work

***

No matter how menial

Or mundane its action

A job done well

Brings satisfaction

***

The happiest people

I bump into

Are those who have

A job to do

***

Do what you love, or else

Love what you do

This secret to success, my friend

Is up to me

And you

***

Not for great fame or wealth I ask

But that You fit me for my task

And Lord, grant then the work I do

Is a worship-song back to You

***

Happy the man who fills his days

Not by seeking but giving praise

***

The merit of satisfaction
Money cannot buy
But it rewards the one who gives
Life his or her best try

***

The only way
To truly enjoy
a holiday
is to work for it

***

The medicine of good, hard work

If bottled up and sold

Would soon heal unemployment

And the fear of growing old

***

If you are healthy

Work

If you are lonely

Work

If you are hungry

Work

If you are angry

Work

If you are anxious

Work

If you are lazy

Work

If you are young

Work

If you are old

Work
If you are rich
work
If you are poor
Work
If you are wise
Work
If you are foolish
Work

If you are able

Work

If you are awake

Work

If you are human

Work

Because someday

When you are sick in bed

You’ll wish for nothing, friend,

But to feel well enough to

Work

***

Beware, if you are afraid of work
That fear will kill you

***

Long it’s been spoken

And long it’s been true

The devil loves hands

With nothing to do

***

If you do not believe

That work is a beautiful trait

Then ask someone who’s lost their job

And they will set you straight

***

The poet’s work is best because

It seems in everything she does

No matter what her toil may be

The end result is poetry

***

So if we have a job to do

We should think it worth doing well

Whether we shine or wear the shoe

God sees the ‘me’ beneath the shell

So if we have a job to do

We should remember, rich or poor

That someday we will answer to

The Master we are working for

***

If you have work

Do not abhor it

But be glad

And thank God for it

***

When I asked God to keep and bless
This day I guess He knew
The secret to true happiness,
...He gave me work to do

***

Whether your tool of trade is a spade,

A pen, a steering wheel

This is the day the Lord has made
In which to use it well

© Janet Martin